friend, we will teach these Virginians to
dance!' Mr. Fairfax Cary has been my pupil, and it gives me pleasure to
vote for his brother to go make the laws for my adopted country--"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Pincornet," interrupted the sheriff, "but you have no
vote. I'll have to ask you to stand aside."
"Come up here, Mr. Pincornet," said Cary, from the Justice's Bench. "I
want to ask you about a gentleman of your name whom I had the honour to
meet in London--M. le Vicomte de Pincornet, a very gallant man--"
"That," said the dancing master, "would be my cousin Alexandre. He
escaped during the Terror hidden under a load of hay, his son driving in
a blouse and red nightcap. Will Mr. Cary honour me?" and out came a
tortoise-shell snuff-box.
The voting quickened. "Rand is ahead--Rand is winning!" went from mouth
to mouth. Fairfax Cary, caring much where his brother cared little,
welcomed impetuously the wave of Federalists which that rumour brought
in from the yard and street. "Ha, Mr. Gilmer, Mr. Carter, you are
welcome! Who votes? Who votes as General Hamilton and Mr. Adams and
Judge Marshall vote? Who votes as _Washington_ would have voted?"
So many crowded to vote as Washington would have voted, that it almost
seemed as though his shade might lead the Federalists to victory. But
the dead Washington must cope with the living Jefferson; mild monarchism
and stately rule with a spirit born of time, nursed by Voltaire and
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, grown articulate in the French Revolution, and
now full swing toward majority. When thrown, the Democrat-Republicans
rose from the earth like Antaeus. Much of the gentle blood and many of
the prominent men of the county voted for Lewis Rand. Jefferson's
personal following of friends and kinsmen was large; these accepted his
man as a matter of course, while to the plain men of the county Lewis
Rand was more even than the coming man: he was of them; he was a plain
man. The clamour and excitement grew. "Here come the Three-Notched Road
people!" cried a voice. "They all rolled tobacco with Gideon Rand!"
The Three-Notched Road people voted to a man for the son of Gideon Rand,
and were promptly reinforced by a contingent of hot Republicans from the
Ragged Mountains. At ten o'clock Lewis Rand was again well ahead, but at
this hour there was a sharp rally of the Federalists. A cheering from
without announced the arrival of some popular voter, and Colonel
Churchill and his brother, Major Edwa
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